Where am I going with this? Well for 1999, fast forward to the PFA’s Championship team of the year in 2013.

The runaway champions, another team playing superbly in red, have just two players deemed good enough by their peers to get in the select XI. Mark Hudson, splendid as skipper, and Peter Whittingham, majestic for the first five months, if not towards the end when he tailed off badly.

No David Marshall, ironically overlooked in favour of Schmeichel junior Kasper, a decision Malky Mackay reckons he cannot understand.

No Craig Bellamy, either, a decision I certainly cannot begin to fathom and one which has resonance with the Keane snub of 1999. Like Keane, it’s fair to say Bellamy has never been the type of individual to ingratiate himself with opposition players.

Fiery, snarly, in their faces, back-chatting away to the referee, the two men tended to adopt a win at any cost mentality.

Maybe that’s why Keane was overlooked back in ‘99 when, hindsight tells us, he was the single-most important factor on the field in driving United to their success.

Just as, in my opinion, Bellamy has been during 2012-13. Without him, I don’t believe Cardiff City would have won the league. With him, they did.

Marshall, Hudson, Ben Turner, Matt Connolly and Andrew Taylor are amongst those who have had superb campaigns and I’ve sung their plaudits as much as anyone.

But it’s easier to pick up a consistent, solid goalkeeper, centre-back or left-back at this level. Getting Premier League quality star-dust further forward, where it is far more difficult to make a mark against tight defences, is another matter entirely.

Mackay picked up that golden nugget in Bellamy. Wonderfully well though the others have played, he has been the key individual difference between the Bluebirds and their promotion rivals.

It’s too simplistic to look at Bellamy’s goal record, a paltry four and not a single one during 2013, and dismiss his season as an ordinary one.

It is the intangibles Bellamy brought to the party which counted most. Mackay knows what they are. He sees them day in, day out.

Leadership qualities, wonderful passing ability, a whole glut of goal assists for team-mates, an incredible work ethic, instilling belief that the team can do it, calmness under enormous pressure and scrutiny.

Coupled with, of course, a fear factor Bellamy’s very presence in the Cardiff team provided whenever he lined up against the opposition.

If Bellamy gave the Bluebirds confidence and put them on the front foot, the opposition had wariness and, frightened of his blistering speed, often sat deep and handed City the ascendancy.

For whatever reason, Bellamy’s Premier League peers have opted to overlook his many attributes in favour of the Crystal Palace duo of Glenn Murray and Yannick Bolasie and Watford hitman Matej Vydra.

I’m not disputing that trio have had excellent campaigns. Murray and Vydra have banged home 48 goals between them, an impressive tally.

Bolasie, next to the brilliant Wilfried Zaha, has provided the fancy footwork and tricks which have helped drive Palace.

But Bellamy, for me, has been the main man in the main team.

What he brought to the dressing room – determination, experience and a calm authority – cannot be over-stated.

It is no coincidence in my eyes that when Bellamy returned from a foot injury mid-November, the Bluebirds suddenly soared to the top of the table and never once looked back.

When the team were in trouble, they knew they could turn to Bellamy for inspiration. He helped ensure the team once dubbed chokers held their nerve to become champions.

Opposition defenders appeared genuinely fearful of Bellamy at times and were bewildered by the speed with which he hunted them down to force errors.

Classic defending from the front, a mantra, ironically, first introduced by Bellamy’s own footballing idol Ian Rush.

There were a number of key games where Bellamy made the difference, but the one I like to cite was the mouth-watering top-of-the-table Boxing Day showdown between the Bluebirds and Crystal Palace.

It was built up as Bellamy versus the mercurial Zaha, a dazzling individual duel within the main battle.

It proved to be master versus pupil as Bellamy cajoled his team-mates towards a 2-1 triumph, leaving Zaha, handed fearful stick that afternoon by the City fans, disconsolate, angry and having learned a valuable football lesson.

He will be better for the experience. He will look to take a leaf out of Bellamy’s book that day.

Football is a team game and Bellamy would have been nothing this season without the foundation provided by the magnificent Marshall, Hudson and co at the back.

But, with respect, it’s easier to play in defence than where Bellamy does, where you get kicked from pillar to post.

He has overcome physical and mental anguish this season to deliver the dream for his home-town club.

Not good enough, according to his peers? As I say, nor were Keane, Schmeichel or Giggs, either.

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